and she asked the widow to tell her all about Him. Selene had made many
sacrifices to her family--she could never forget her walk to the papyrus-
factory--but He had let them mock Him and had shed His blood for His own.
And who was she?--and who was He? The Son of God. His image became dear
to her; she was never weary of hearing about His life and fate, His words
and deeds; and without her observing it the day came when her soul was
free to receive the teaching of Christ with fervent longing. With faith
she acquired that consciousness of guilt which had previously been
unknown to her. She had been busy and industrious out of pride and fear,
but never from love; she had selfishly tried to fling from her the sacred
gift of life without ever thinking what would become of those whom it was
her duty to care for. She had cursed her lovely sister who needed her
protection and care, and even Pollux, her childhood's playfellow; and a
thousand times had she imprecated the ruler of human destinies. All this
she now keenly felt with all the earnestness natural to her, but she was
soothed by the tidings that there was One who had redeemed the world, and
taken on Himself the sins of every repentant sinner.

After Selene had once expressed to the widow her desire to be a
Christian, Hannah brought the bishop to see her. He himself undertook
to instruct the girl and he found in her a disciple anxious and craving
for knowledge. Just like those dried-up and dull-colored plants which,
when they are plunged in water, open out and revive, so did her heart,
untimely withered and dry; and she longed to be perfectly recovered that
she, like Hannah, might tend the sick and exercise that love which Christ
demands of His followers. That which most particularly appealed to her
in her new faith was that it did not promise joys to the rich who could
make great sacrifices, but to the miserable sinner who with a contrite
heart yearned for forgiveness, to the poor and abject, towards whom she
felt as though they belonged to the same family as herself. And her